With the Sierra snowpack sitting at almost 200% of normal as of March 6, 2017, let’s not forget how far we have come. Here are some photos I shot on a trip to our place in Tahoe back in February of 2015. What an amazing difference!

It looked like summer in the winter of 2015. Here’s a view off Eagle Rock on the West Shore…a spot I’ve never been in the dead of winter…

Looking south off Eagle Rock towards Sugar Pine Point and, eventually, South Lake Tahoe. It was so depressing and scary to see it in February with no snow…

I took a picture of the monkeys that snowless winter, pretending to sled on the driveway, where they normally have their pretend Olympic Games…

And here’s that same driveway now…

The lake level this year is back up above its natural rim but in in Feb of 2015, it was looking bleak…

With the lake back up, the Truckee River is now reaching it’s outlet at Tahoe City. In 2014 that was clearly not the case. This is the view off the dam looking out towards where the lake is supposed to be…

The Truckee was all but dry below the dam too that winter. Here’s looking back upstream towards Fanny Bridge in Tahoe City…

Summer? Nope…Dead of winter 2015…

So, just how much snow have we had this year? Well, here are the totals as of March 1:

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Winter Run king salmon in the Sacramento River appear to be on the fast track to disappearing from the Earth. With runs so diminished, there are potentially huge implications for fishermen and farmers coming soon, including cutbacks in water deliveries and sweeping fishing closures.
Check out this article in the Sacramento Bee for more info.

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Here we go again! There’s a bill currently making its way through Congress that will virtually wipe out the Central Valley salmon. It also begins the eradication of stripers and bass. The merged bill is based on Senator Feinstein’s Senate water bill (S2198) and the water bill passed by the House last February (HR3964).

They both overturn the Delta biological opinions and they both will do irreversible damage to the ESA listed and non-listed salmon runs of the Sacramento River.

The water mongers won’t stop and that’s why we need to fight. It only takes about 30 seconds to have you voice heard! Just sign the petitions below!

While driving to and from Southern California this week, it was hard not to be thoroughly outraged by seeing the California Aqueduct bank to bank with water…while every other river in the state is at or near historic lows!

Apparently, we’re not holding a whole lot back when it comes to Southern water deliveries!

Here’s another unsettling visual: Pyramid Lake, just north of LA (which receives water from Nor Cal), brim-full…

Now, compare that to Folsom Reservoir on the American River system…

In review: CA Aqueduct…

And then you have the Sacramento River and all its salmon spawning beds left high and dry…

Something isn’t right here, folks! I’m just saying…

One thing we can all do to help is to join the Golden Gate Salmon Association which is fighting hard for us to keep enough water in Nor Cal so that our fish runs can flourish.